engineering computer science MCQ #167

A processor has 16-bit instruction length, 3-address instruction format. What is the maximum number of instructions?

engineering computer science MCQ #167

  1. Question 1

    Q1. A processor has 16-bit instruction length, 3-address instruction format. What is the maximum number of instructions?

    • A) 256
    • B) 65536
    • C) 512
    • D) 1024

    Answer: 256

    Explanation: Opcode bits = 16 - 3*address bits. Assuming 4-bit address, opcode bits = 16 - 3*4 = 4, so 2⁴ = 16, but if we consider the address bits to be more than 4, the number of instructions will be less, for 5-bit address, it is 1.